Impressions of the Last Dragonborn
by Kaimialana
Summary: A collection of interviews with acquaintances, friends, and family of the Last Dragonborn, following her disappearance.
1. Prologue

When I completed my previously published "Biography of the Last Dragonborn", I was left unsatisfied. As I explained in that book's introduction, getting the Last Dragonborn to sit down and tell me her complete and true story as she remembers it was more like herding sabre cats or performing dental surgery than scholarship. She was infinitely distracted, hardly able to sit still. Her wife suggested I ask questions while she works on her various projects or takes a walk, and finally there was progress. She required prompting at every turn, but at last I able to make sense of her many legendary accomplishments. Unfortunately, she was just as likely to talk about a giant camp she investigated, or a small cave she entered, as she was to tell of dragon fights or the civil war. There was little notion of time to her narrative; she would be talking about her first day in Falkreath and suddenly jump to a year later when she encountered Barbas the dog and promptly continue telling me about the Daedric Prince Clavicus Vile. Nor was the completeness of any particular account tied to it's overall importance. She could remember the exact location of every cave and ruin she passed in her journey, but when asked what the inside of Sky Haven Temple looked like or what Parthunax said to her in their first encounter she would shrug and say, "I don't really remember". Her scattered journal entries were useful for drawing a timeline of events but were equally lacking in details.

 **Who was the Last Dragonborn, really?** Ten years after the biography it was still unclear to me. She is the central pivot of her narrative, but there is nothing in there about her, no details of her personal life, no notion of who she really was beyond her own words and accomplishments. The events of her life suggest a person both reckless and careful, pious and immoral, heroic and criminal, helpful and destructive. She was a mage, a fighter, a rogue. She was Archmage, Harbinger of the Companions, Thieves Guildmaster, member of the Dawnguard, master of the the Voice, aid to the Blades. There are even rumors that she was associated with the Dark Brotherhood and the death of Titus Mede II, though she declined to speak about it when asked. She somehow made the acquaintance of every Daedric Prince during her time wandering. Many of these stories are unbelievable and would be called farce if told by any other person. I simply took it on faith that, if she fought a dragon god, single-handedly turned the tide of a civil war, and won renown in every hold for many other accomplishments, then the rest was likely true too.

This is, ultimately, an unsatisfying conclusion. Five years after her sudden disappearance I felt I needed a better portrait of her. I wanted to know who she was personally, and I wanted to verify some of these lesser known accomplishments. So I trekked across Skyrim province to speak with the people who knew her best, the ordinary inhabitants. I interviewed shopkeepers, rogues, warriors, government employees, religious leaders, city guards, anyone who knew her and was willing to speak on their time with her. And as the paint slowly layered onto the canvas, I found her more mysterious and complicated than ever before, and paradoxically, more ordinary.

Herein you will find the collected interviews with minor editing. I at first attempted to place them in chronological order, but after realizing this was impossible I decided to order them as made whatever sense to me. **My words are in bold for clarity.** I am particularly grateful to her wife, daughter, and housecarl for their accounts, as they knew her better than anyone. I am also thankful for the assistance of the College of Winterhold in contacting interviewees and to the leadership of the holds for safe passage during my travels.

~Jantus Aquillarios, Cyrodiil, 231 4E


	2. Lucan Valerius

**Lucan Valerius, Proprietor of the Riverwood Trader, Riverwood, Whiterun Hold.**

 **Tell me about the first time you saw the Last Dragonborn.**

Ah, yes, that would have been...25th of Last seed, 201, I think. A week after that dragon destroyed Helgen. We recently had a robbery and my sister Camilla and I were arguing about what should be done. She wanted to go after the thief, and I thought that was a damn foolish idea that would get her killed. And then Odvild walked in the door.

I guess my first impression of her was incredibly underwhelming. She was wearing a cobbled together mess of Imperial and Stormcloak armor, looked like she hadn't slept for a fortnight. She also seemed like she was having pain in her knees and elbows. From the number of wolf pelts on her back I suspected she had contracted rockjoint and was trying to work through it rather than resting it off or asking for help. Otherwise, she looked like an ordinary Nord woman, not too tall, dirty blond hair, blue eyes.

She asked if she could sit down a moment and of course, I offered her a chair and a bit of soup. I said, "You look like you've been through Oblivion and back!" And then Odvild told us of the dragon attack on Helgen, the first we knew about it. A boy had been running around the previous week claiming he saw a dragon fly over, and until that moment I thought it was pure foolishness. No longer. She said she had escaped with her life, that the blacksmith's son had helped her escape, and that she was staying with him at his house for the time being. She said she had only a few septims from helping in the lumber mills, that she was hoping to sell some pelts and get back on her feet.

And then she asked me the strangest question. She asked, "Do you happen to have any spell books?" Of course, I had no idea I was speaking to the future archmage! I thought, a Nord mage? Most of the locals are so afraid of any magic besides alchemy, not like in Cyrodiil. Besides, she didn't look at all scholarly enough to learn them. But I had a few laying around, so I showed her and she asked if the pelts would be enough of a trade for them. Well, to be honest I was happy to be rid of them, so I traded her the lot. The pelts at least I could sell to Alvor or trade down to Whiterun. After the business was done she relaxed a bit. I asked, "So, are you with the Legion or the Stormcloaks?" In that moment, all the the tension came back into her, like she was ready for a fight. I said, "No no, it's fine, Whiterun Hold is neutral territory! I was only curious." She relaxed again and said that when she fled Helgen she took what she could get for protection, and that she was glad to have it when the wolves attacked on the road. I didn't know until later that she and Alvor's boy fought their way out of Helgen through a score of Stormcloaks.

It was at this point that she started to fall asleep where she was sitting. It wasn't even midday. I guess I felt sorry for her, so I offered to pull out a rug and let her sleep in front of the fire for a while. She declined and said a chair would suit her well enough. I just didn't want her to fall asleep halfway back to Alvor's house. If she was a friend of their clan, then I'd never hear the end of it were she hurt. In any case, she drifted off, and my sister and I started talking about the thief again. Well, she woke up and asked about the theft. I told her about the golden claw. **[Here Lucan set the claw down before me. It is clearly of a different era and cast entirely in gold in the shape of a dragon's claw, same as the description from the biography.]** Said that a thief came in the night and took it, and only it. I've had the claw ever since we moved to Riverwood 40 years ago. We found it while digging the foundation for the store. It was a luck charm, still is, and a symbol of the Riverwood Trader. I told her that the thief ran off in the direction of the Bleak Falls Barrow, up the mountain.

Well, she had this gleam in her eyes. I recognize it now for what it is, excitement. She said that she'd go reclaim the claw for us, and I could hardly believe it! She left the shop, and a month went by until we saw her again. She walked in with a bag of ancient Nord weapons and tomb goods and the golden claw in her hand. She also looked in much better health, better rested, no longer sick. She said that the thief was fast but he wouldn't be bothering us anymore. It wasn't until I had read the biography that I learned she had cleared Bleak Falls Barrow of zombies and bandits in the process and that the claw was a key to a special door. I thought she had just caught up to him on the mountain slope!

Soon after that she moved out of Alvor and Sigrid's and into the Sleeping Giant. She would come in every now and then with old armor and weapons and various other trinkets. I tried to tell her that I'd take anything she brought me but there wasn't much call for it so I couldn't pay much. Most Nords won't even look at ancient tomb goods, even gold or siver ones, without making the sign against the evil eye. I said, "Odvild, you should really take this ancient stuff to Whiterun and trade it to a major caravan", and she would always tell me, "Lucan, I'd rather drop it here with you for nothing than haul it down to Whiterun to trade it, or worse, sell it to that greasy Breton."

Eventually she moved out of Riverwood and down into Whiterun, got married. I didn't see much of her after that, but I always enjoyed a visit. We heard about her adventures of course, and read the biography.

 **Did she visit at all before her disappearance?**

Yes, actually. About a half year before she was believed missing. This was long after the war. She said she had some unfinished business in Markarth, something about going back down into the Blackreach. I told her to be careful. Never heard from her after.

 **What do you think happened to her?**

She died, probably. I don't really want to think about it. I'm not a follower of the Nord ways, but I'd like to think she completed her mission and was taken up into Soverngard like the Nords believe. A much more fitting end than, well...I'd prefer to talk about something else.

 **What was your general impression of the Last Dragonborn?**

Odvild was...many things. She was certainly strong, and courageous. But she was also simple and single-minded. She would get it in her head to do something and nothing could persuade her otherwise! It was always just like with the claw. There would be a dragon attack, or vampires, or sightings of ghosts or ghouls from a tomb, or some great staging in the war and she would rush off to help. She was always helping, and always asking for so little. She saved Riverwood from at least three dragon attacks in my memory, she saved my life directly more than once, my sister's life several more times, fool that she is. And don't listen to those people in the cities who say she was nothing but a liar and a thief that didn't care about anything but power and money. She had a heart of gold, purer than this claw. After the war when things started to settle down I wrote her into my will, said, if something happens to me and Camilla and her son doesn't want it, then Odvild could have the Riverwood Trader. Even if she didn't run it, I knew it would be in good hands. But now...I know at least her wife and daughter are alright. They came with Odvild to visit when Lucia was of age, hiked up to Bleak Falls Barrow and went out to the rebuilding effort in Helgen. Odvild was very happy with them but family life was never enough, she was always looking for the next adventure, which I suppose was the end of her...I'm sorry, I don't feel like talking anymore.

 **[Lucan refused to comment further.]**


End file.
